Lobster Salad

Viral Musings: Yesterday as Trump tweet/bragged about saving Maine’s lobster industry by directing bribe funding into the state where vulnerable/pearl clutcher Senator Susan Collins is up for reelection and continued to threaten those “radicals” and “thugs” overturning statues, the coronavirus raged on bigly, reaching new levels across the country.  Nationwide cases are up 30% compared to the beginning of June. Over the past week twenty-six states have seen their caseloads increase, up 77% in Arizona, 75% in Michigan, 70% in Texas, 66% in Florida and 47% in California.  Only the New York region and parts of New England have consistently managed to get caseloads down through May and June (so far?). Despite all of this, yesterday VP Pence, the purported leader of the virus task force, told governors that the problem only affects a few counties and, like Trump, erroneously laid the blame on an increase in testing which may explain why the administration has decided to end federal funding for testing sites in places like Texas at the end of the month.  No testing, no virus. Right?  With COVID rates declining in Europe, where most leaders took the pandemic seriously, the EU is now giving serious consideration to blocking travel from the US and yesterday the Governors of New York, Connecticut and New Jersey announced a travel advisory requiring that anyone arriving from states with high coronavirus rates will be required to self-quarantine for 14 days.  The advisory applies to people coming from states with positive test rates higher than 10 per 100,000 residents over a 7-day rolling average or a state with a 10% or higher positivity rate over a seven-day rolling average. As of yesterday, that list includes Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Utah and Texas. 

Wishing on a Star:  Though Trump continues to try to orate the virus away, someone in the White House appear to understand that the Tinkerbell strategy isn’t working all that well.  Yesterday, during the news conference with visiting Polish President Duda, the press seating arrangement which last week had been moved back to pre-virus spacing was back in a socially distanced formation.  Maybe that’s because dozens of Secret Service officers and agents who were in Tulsa for the first leg of Trump’s COVID tour have been ordered to self-quarantine for 14 days because two of their colleagues tested COVID positive.  No news yet as to whether those who attended the Phoenix rally will also be subjected to a similar stay at home order.  It’s only a matter of time before Trump will have to contract out for protection.  Maybe Erik Prince or Vlad Putin have some extra mercenaries to share. The stock market gods aren’t happy either, investors appear to be waking up to the fact that the failure to take the virus seriously has consequences for economic growth.  On the bright side, although enough time has passed for the virus to have shown up in demonstrators, there hasn’t been an uptick in cases in New York, a result being attributed to the wide spread wearing of facemasks. If only someone was in a position to insist that all of his MAGA hatted followers also went the face mask route. 

InJustice:  Yesterday’s testimony before the House Judiciary Committee went about as expected.  Aaron Zelinsky (who I mistakenly called Andrew yesterday) testified that that the decision to adjust the sentencing recommendation for Trump buddy Roger Stone was politically influenced.  Though he didn’t initially name the DOJ official who told him that, when pushed by the ever skeptical, not too bright Jim “Gym” Jordan to cough up the name, he did, identifying the supervisor as JP Cooney, the head of the fraud and public corruption unit.  Thanks to “Gym”, Cooney is likely to be invited to come in and testify, not the result that “Gym” intended. Zelinsky also named another Justice official, Alessio Evangelista and then when “Gym” asked whether  these officials had spoken with Attorney General Barr, Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen or then-U.S. Attorney Timothy Shea, Zelinsky responded, “My understanding is they did.”  Again not the responses that Jordan wanted or expected.  As expected  John Elias, another career Justice Department attorney, said that AG Barr had pushed for improper, politically motivated investigations of cannabis industry companies.  And, Don Ayer, who previously served as the Deputy Attorney General under George HW Bush testified that he believes that AG Barr “poses the greatest threat, in my lifetime, to our rule of law and to public trust in it….that is because he does not believe in its core principle: that no person is above the law.” Under threat of a subpoena, Barr has now agreed to come in and testify at the end of July.  Don’t ink that into your calendar, he’s been known to come up with last minute excuses.  Chairman Nadler who earlier said that there was no point in trying to impeach Barr given the Senate’s willingness to ignore Trump administration criminality now says that impeachment is on the table.  One more thing, and this one is a bit hard for me to explain so I might not get it completely right.  Yesterday, by a 2 to 1 vote, an Appeals court ordered Judge Sullivan to accede to the Justice Department’s request to dismiss the charges against Trump’s former national security advisor Michael Flynn, not because they questioned Flynn’s guilt but because Barr/Trump want the charges dropped.  That opinion was written by Neomi Rao, one of Trump’s appointees.  Though the ruling is good news for Flynn and by extension Trump and Barr, it may not be the last word on the issue as any active judge on the DC Circuit, including the judge who cast the dissenting vote could call for a vote to bring the matter before the full court “en banc.”  Stay tuned.  Also, stay tuned to the Supreme Court, some more decisions are likely to be handed down today.

Et Cetera:  Democrats voted against bringing Republican Senator Tim Scott’s version of a police reform bill to the floor for debate, partially over concerns that they won’t be able to strengthen the bill to include a total ban on chokeholds, because it doesn’t address limiting police protections for bad acts and because they want to start with the House version.      

No blog tomorrow.  Have a nice weekend! Stay safe and #WearAMask.